Kuwait refinery fire forces sharp cut in output

22 August 2013 16:19[Source: ICIS news]

DUBAI (ICIS)--Output from Kuwait’s Mina Abdullah refinery will fall about 70% after a fire that broke out on 21 August damaged the plant, a spokesman with the state oil firm Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) said on Thursday.

The distillation unit at the refinery run by KNPC, with a capacity of 270,000 bbl of oil/day, caught fire because of an oil leak in the crude oil refining pipes.

“The blaze was quickly put out and there was no injury. It does not impact the main distillation unit and the refinery production or export operations,” KNPC spokesperson Mohammad Al-Ajmi said in a statement.

“The incident however, affected the refining capacity of the refinery from 270,000 bbl/day to 80,000 bbl/day,” he added.

Al-Ajmi did not say how long it will take to return to 100% output.

“The management of the refinery has formed a working group to investigate the incident, assess the damage and chalk out a repair plan. And in the next three days, it will decide how long it will take to finish maintenance works,” he added.

KNPC owns and operates the OPEC member's three refineries with a combined capacity of 930,000 bbl/day.

Al-Ajmi presence of strategic stocks at the refinery will compensate daily loss in production and back up reserves will be used for export till the plant is back in normal mode.